24th ORDINARY SESSION OF THE COUNCIL
OF HUMAN RIGHTS
ON MODERN FORMS OF SLAVERY

ADDRESS OF ARCHBISHOP SILVANO
M. TOMASI
PERMANENT OBSERVER OF THE HOLY SEE TO THE UNITED NATIONS AND SPECIALIZED
AGENCIES*

Geneva, Switzerland
Thursday, 12 September 2013

Practical steps in the fight against modern slavery

Mr President,

The modern day slave trade is a fast growing industry in our
globalized world and it affects some 30 million persons. This criminal 21
billion-dollar-a-year industry is entrenched in almost all the supply chains
providing food, clothes, and electronics, to the world market. The products
of our daily usage should remind us of the responsibility to be aware of how
workers, who make our life more comfortable, are dealt with.

The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery
outlines effectively the challenges facing the international community and
the initiatives needed to combat this practice which reduces human beings to
mere tools for profit and poisons human society.

Today’s slaves are children forced to work in hazardous and
unhealthy conditions; they are women exploited in domestic work where the
requirements of justice and of the 2011 Domestic Workers Convention (n. 189)
— concerning decent work for domestic workers that entered into force a few
days ago — are negated; they are women manipulated into sexual activity for
tourists and other taskmasters; they are boys and men obliged to carry out
dirty and dangerous jobs without any choice or rightful claims on their
part. Many of these slaves remain imprisoned in their condition as a result
of trafficking in persons on the part of criminal individuals and groups:
all are victims whose plight is by now well-documented, but not sufficiently
addressed, as is the case of the migrants who disappear in the Sinai desert
in their desperate journey towards freedom.

Moreover, this culture detaches freedom from the moral law
with the consequence that the victims of contemporary slavery become a mere
commodity in the market of consumerism.

As the Special Rapporteur points out, progress has been made
in combating slavery through juridical instruments, good practices and
increased awareness of the many forms that this crime takes from debt
bondage to servile marriage and from child slavery to domestic servitude.

Mr President, the Holy See is deeply concerned about the
persistence of this social plague and, particularly through the activity of
the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant
People, is committed to combating it in its various manifestations.
Additionally, Christian faith-based groups have been on the forefront of
this effort to reach out to victims of slavery and to provide them with an
escape and a return to normal life by making available temporary shelter,
counselling and legal advice. Thus, for example, in response to a strong
appeal by Pope Francis, who stigmatized “selfishness that continues in human
trafficking, the most extensive form of slavery in this twenty-first century,”
(Francis,
Urbi et Orbi Message, 31 March 2013) the Pontifical
Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences, together with the World
Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, are organizing a preparatory
workshop to examine human trafficking and modern slavery.

To counteract the persistence of slavery some practical
steps are called for: an updated national legislation, a public culture that
values and uphold the transcendent dignity of every person, an effective
judicial system that prevents slave masters from retaking control of their
victims. Human security needs reinforcing and the root causes that make
people vulnerable must be thoroughly addressed by promoting development,
creating decent jobs, and facilitating access to education and health care.

The Special Rapporteur reviews a series of good practices
that would remedy this wound on the human family constituted by the various
forms of modern slavery. As always, the challenge remains the implementation
of human rights treaties and recommendations so that the collaboration of
Governments, the international community, the business sector and civil
society may effectively advance the elimination of an evil that offends the
dignity of every person.